Improving Economy

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by Hydro
I've noticed my income spiking when I grab lots of territory (usually when I take an enemy capital). That income has never been enough to run an empire, though. In my latest game I have raving fleets of Drengin and Altarans, so if I'm passive I'd dead. Trade income, sadly, is zero since evil races (as in my Yor) get 1 trade route by Council resolution.

Well, yeah, that's a problem with evil. You can't trust on trade, unless you are an hegemon at the UP (I paid a hefty price for that in my previous games, buying influence like crazy, but I doubt I could afford it at higher difficulty levels)

Other keys are influence resources and high populations. I've generally ignored influence bonus tiles, though. Have you seen a difference? Do you think influence/tourism income is both area and intensity?

Generally, if I see a planet is heavy on influence tiles, I say this planet will be dedicated to generating influence.

For me, influence isn't so much for expanding my borders, but to gain more votes at the UP and to hope for a cultural victory (which I still never reached, possibly for lack of discipline )

I imagine the tourism income is calculated from your influence as expressed in UP votes. In any case, whenever I buy a sizeable amount of UP votes (also called influence points), I see my influence graph spiking.

[tetley]

I don't think traded influence and tourism have anything to do with each other.